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Kia Hood Lift Strut Replacement

Time Required

30 min

Difficulty

Easy

Category

Maintenance

If your Kia is equipped with gas charged lift / supports, you may need to replace them if your hood no longer stays up. The hood struts wear out over time and need to be replaced. Follow the instruction below to change Kia hood struts yourself.

How to replace Kia hood supports

What you will need

Instructions

Open hood

Pull the hood release under the dashboard and open the hood.

Remove hood support

Use a flat screwdriver to remove the C clip from the hood support. Have a helper keep the hood in the open / up position as you remove the hood struts. Some models have the ball joint on one side and a bolt on the other. Others may have ball joints on both sides of the hood strut. The Kia Optima in our case had ball joint on both ends of the hood strut.

Install new hood support

Install the hood support in reverse order. Make sure the strut is pressed all the way into the ball joint then press the clip in. Watch the following video for further details.

Frequently Asked Questions

It is recommended that you replace both hood struts at the same time. You may be able to get away with just replacing one hood strut. It is very likely that the other hood lift is going to fail in the near future. This of course applies to vehicles with two hood sturts. Some models have only one hood support.

If you replace the hood lift support yourself you will spend between $30-$45, which is the cost of parts. If you are going to replace the hood struts at a Kia dealer or an auto mechanic you may spend between $100-$150 USD.

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